


Familiar Stranger

by AngiePangie



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-10
Updated: 2014-08-10
Packaged: 2018-02-12 14:25:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2113284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngiePangie/pseuds/AngiePangie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The TARDIS is gone, leaving Rose Tyler with her almost human replica of the Doctor. She's hesitant about his identity as the man she loves, but he's determined to make her see the truth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Familiar Stranger

**Author's Note:**

> Slight spoilers for season 4, Journey's End

The TARDIS began to shift and blur, oscillating in the fabric of spacetime. Rose Tyler held tightly to her new Doctor, burying her face in his neck and squeezing her eyes shut, desperate not to have to witness the blue box leaving her again, and for the last time. She took fistfuls of the blue suit jacket as she sobbed, hoping her own crying would drown out that sound she'd come to know so well, the TARDIS in flight. That sound had preceded all of her unimaginably incredible adventures. It had been the soundtrack to the start of her new life. But now it heralded heartbreak and loss. The mechanical whoosh was now a mournful dirge for the loss of everything.

Rose squeezed her Doctor without restraint. The familiar stranger was all she had left, and his arms around her, squeezing right back, was all that kept her heart from shattering to pieces. He looked right. He smelled right. His voice in her ear humming softly sounded right as he comforted her in her moment of despair. Though the Doctor had never indulged in more than a hug with her, Rose somehow knew that even the fingers gently petting her hair were right. Then why did it all feel so wrong?

Finally mustering the strength to return to the world, Rose opened her eyes. Over the shoulder she clung to she saw her mother sauntering far off down the beach. Jackie had suspected her daughter had feelings for the Doctor all along, even before Rose would admit to it, and so she sensed the gravity of the moment unfolding before her. As the TARDIS vanished, she'd decided to let them be. Nothing in her life had prepared her to console her daughter at a time like this.

Rose was grateful for the moment of peace, free from her mother's commentary. She needed time to process. With everything that was happening, Rose felt a twinge of surprise as she pulled back, looked in the Doctor's face, and found no words. There should be a million things to say right now, questions upon questions, but there was just a void as she regarded the warm brown eyes staring back down at her, full of warmth with a hint of apprehension.

He loved her. He'd said so himself. They were words that her other Doctor could never manage, and moments ago they'd thrilled her. Her own fantasy and longing had materialized before her as this new man had leaned in and finished the sentence she'd replayed in her mind every single day since they'd been separated. Rose's body had acted of its own accord, arms thrown up, lips crushed against lips. Her entire body had sighed with relief at the contact. It had been an urge she never thought would be realized.

But now she turned to see an ominous square indent in the sand, the remnants of the man she should have been kissing all along. Gone. All that remained was the sound of the ocean breeze fluttering through her hair and the sudden clearing of a throat at her side. Her new Doctor grabbed her hand and wrapped his fingers around hers. Rose looked from their mingled fingers up to his face, his lips in a hard line.

"We should go," he said hesitantly. It was all he could think to say. The last thing he wanted was to seem insensitive or commanding, but watching Rose stare into the sand wishing for someone else was just too much. It wasn't someone else. It was him. He'd stood on the very same beach with her ages ago, unable to finish his thought as the sun burned out and he lost contact. It was only now with his half-human brain and his wholly human heart that he'd been able to let go of the words that had been eating him from the inside. The fear that had held him back now ceased to exist in this form. He had been in danger of bursting if he didn't say them soon. He loved Rose Tyler. He'd been a fool before to hesitate. And now the love of his long lifetime stared into nothingness pinging after that fool.

"Rose," he continued. She wasn't budging. He brought her hand to his mouth and placed a soft kiss on her knuckles. He felt an ache inside when she flinched.

"Yeah," she finally replied. "Let's get out of here." She gave him a half-hearted smile as they turned to leave. Always putting on a brave face, he mused. Rose hadn't changed one bit. But he had.

 

***

 

Rose curled herself into a ball underneath the chenille blanket and stared into the crackling fire. The Norwegian inn was quaint and homey, but she couldn't have felt farther from home that night. Home wasn't a physical place to her anymore. It was at the side of the Doctor, no matter where or when they were. She couldn't shake her unease as the fire popped and flickered before the plush armchair.  Would she ever feel right again? Or would she forever be a mindless zombie going through the motions of a normal life? She pulled the blanket up to her chin and sighed. At least for now... zombie.

A soft rap on the door jolted her mind from its cold, dark abyss. She turned in the chair. "Come in."

The door opened a crack and she saw the unmistakable brown mop poke through, then the silhouette of a nervous face reluctant to fully enter. "It's me, Rose."

The Doctor had kept his distance the rest of the day. He'd had enough of the sideways eyes evaluating him, judging him, and decided to give Rose her space until she'd figured out how she felt about him. Seven hours was the most his body would allow before forcing him into action, heading down the hall to her room and knocking. He had to be near her. He had to make her recognize him.

He slipped into the room sideways, slowly. He winced at the foreignness of it all, feeling so uncomfortable entering the room of his best friend in the universe. But her cold gaze, eyes red with tears, gave him pause. She didn't know him. And he'd have to remind her.

"S'ok," she said flatly, returning her stare to the fire. "Come sit." Rose's mind was torn in two very different directions. The Doctor's presence was soothing, natural, but something nagged at her subconscious. Something odd that didn't feel quite right. She'd watched her Doctor close the TARDIS door and leave her once and for all, yet here he stood in her room, looking the same but somehow different. He was the Doctor. And he wasn't. All at the same time.

He crossed the dimly lit room and sat in the armchair across from her. Rose glanced up from the flames after a moment to see his eyes fixed on her. They were sad. Not in the timeless, haunted way they had always been a little sad, but radiating a concrete here-and-now pain that she could almost reach out and touch. She let her eyes fall from his furrowed brow down his body. He sat unmoving in the chair, clad in a white t-shirt and blue slacks. Rose couldn't help but grin. Aside from the borrowed pajamas she'd once seen him in, he'd never been without his trademark pinstripes and overcoat. Rose chuckled. This vision of him, so casual, so normal, so _human._ It was disorienting. The Doctor's lips turned up in a half smile at the sound of her laughing voice.

"You okay?" He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. 

"Fine, Doctor," she replied. It felt odd calling him that, but there was no alternative. 

He huffed loudly and hung his head. "Don't lie to me, Rose. You've never been any good at it."

She sat up at this. "I've never lied to you," she bit back. "I've known you less than a day, how could I?"

That stung him deeply. How could he make her see? He shifted forward to the edge of his seat. "Rose," he spoke slowly, deliberately. "I am the same man you've always known. Please." He couldn't bear the look of rejection in her eyes. He searched them for any glimmer of recognition, any spark at all that he could fan into what they had before.

"I just don't know." It was hardly above a whisper as she stared into that face. She knew it so well, yet she couldn't shake her trepidation.

Suddenly the Doctor sprung from his chair and was on his knees before Rose. He threw his head in her lap and wound his arms around her waist. He couldn't contain the pleading in his voice. "Yes, you  _do_ know," he murmured against her thigh. "Krop Tor, and New Earth, and that silly candy I bought you at the fair on Arengis, and it got all stuck in your hair and your mouth turned bright pink, and oh Rose, that night I stood outside your bedroom on the TARDIS, and you didn't know, but that was the day I knew I loved you. I, myself, hardly knew it then, why I was pacing outside your door, but I know  _NOW._ Now I finally understand all the times my hearts were aching when you would touch me or smile at me. Rose..." He was desperate now but couldn't bring himself to care as he caressed her back. "Remember, Rose."

Rose wiped away the tears falling silently down her cheeks. It was all the things she'd always wanted to hear, the words having only existed in her fantasies until now. She remembered the way they'd laughed about the candy, how he'd touched her face so gently to help remove the sticky sweet mess. She remembered frustrated nights of her own, lying in bed and wishing the Doctor would pay her a visit. She would sometimes watch him work when he thought she was asleep, peeking around corners to observe him bouncing around the console, full of life and enthusiasm.

She reached her arms out and cradled his head in her hands. She curled her fingers into his hair and gripped him tight as his hands softly explored her back. He'd comforted her countless times in the face of danger and fear and all things horrible, but now it was her turn. Rose felt the wet spot on her leg and flinched. The Doctor was crying.

"Doctor," she whispered, lifting his chin from her lap. Rose winced as she saw his beautiful brown eyes like she'd never seen them before, red and puffy and crestfallen. "I will try. I promise I will." 

Rose leaned forward and pressed her lips to his in a delicate kiss. His whimpering quieted then. She pulled back ever so slightly and looked at him. His eyes were still red, but the tears had ceased and there was a gleam of hope in them. His eyebrows were raised in surprise. 

"It's me," he said. It was the only thing he could think to say. It was all that mattered. The blue eyes burned a hole through him now, searching for something. He reached out and cupped the angelic face before him. He kissed her with more fervor now, mumbling into her lips. "It's me, Rose."

"I know."

The words were heaven against his mouth. He pushed harder now, and she let him in, parting her lips and letting him taste her sweet warmth. They sat like that for several minutes, devouring each other in front of the fire, hands tugging at hair, panting mouths dancing across each other, tongues exploring dark depths. Until Rose pulled away.

She took a deep breath, caressed the soft head of hair in her lap, those eyes staring up at her with desire, and said, "I'll see you in the morning, Doctor." She flashed him a timid grin.

The Doctor smiled as well, confident and proud. He would have to be self-assured enough for the both of them if they were to get through these lingering doubts together. He stood, leaned down and placed a tender kiss on Rose's forehead, and headed for the door. He closed it behind him and rested against it, exhaling forcefully. He would not push her. He would let her come to him in her own time. After all, he'd waited nine hundred years to find her. He could wait a little longer.


End file.
